NEW YORK—There he was, leading the pack at Sunday's ING New York City Marathon, looking strong enough to win, maybe strong enough to surpass the performances that had made him the top American distance runner of the past 25 years.

Then he bonked, his tiny frame spiraling from view behind the front-runners. And suddenly one couldn't help remembering that Meb Keflezighi—winner of the 2009 New York marathon, silver medalist at the 2004 Olympics—is 38. One also couldn't help but think that no younger American in sight seems healthy or fast enough to match Keflezighi's accomplishments.

A record 50,740 runners started the New York City Marathon. The race returned after a one year absence due to superstorm Sandy amid heightened security measures following the Boston Marathon bombings. Photo: AP

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Maybe nobody will need to. After finishing 23rd Sunday—in 2:23:07, far behind his best New York finish of 2:09:13—Keflezighi revealed that an early September injury had restricted him to just one long training run in the two months leading up to the race. That run had totaled only 15 miles.

"I still believe I can run a personal best," said Keflezighi.

For America at large, Sunday's marathon was a big success. Following the storm that canceled last year's New York race, and the fatal bombings that cut short this year's Boston Marathon, Sunday's event restored the sense of normalcy and predictability that leads most Americans to ignore it altogether. For the third time in New York marathon history, Kenyans won both the men's and women's races: 29-year-old Priscah Jeptoo with a come-from-behind finish in 2:25:07, and 32-year-old Geoffrey Mutai with a time of 2:08:24, slightly slower than his course record-setting run in New York in 2011.

ENLARGE

The only other nation ever to claim both winners was the United States, back when Bill Rodgers and Miki Gorman won in 1976 and 1977, according to the New York Road Runners, the nonprofit that organizes and administers the marathon. Ahead of Sunday's race, NYRR inducted into its Hall of Fame three legends from those early days: Rodgers, Frank Shorter and Joan Benoit Samuelson.

Why American pre-eminence declined following the retirement of those legends is a source of never-ending debate. Even as participation among ordinary Americans has skyrocketed—Sunday's starting field of 50,747 was a record for New York, the world's largest marathon—the emergence of elite American distance runners has slowed.

Perhaps not coincidentally, American interest in elite performers has diminished as well, as evidenced by the fact that Shorter, Rodgers and Salazar remain better known than Keflezighi, who was the first American male since Shorter to win an Olympic marathon medal and the first since Salazar to win the New York race.

ENLARGE

Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya won the New York City Marathon.
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Like those legends, Keflezighi is something of a pioneer. After his contract with Nike expired in 2011, he negotiated a deal with Skechers. Besides helping the fashion footwear maker design a line of running shoes, Keflezighi persuaded Skechers to allow multiple logos on his uniform at some races, something that shoe makers and even governing bodies traditionally had disallowed.

Nor does Keflezighi limit his endorsements to the usual makers of performance apparel, equipment and space-age nutritional companies. Forget that image of the runner as a salad-eating juice-sipper. In a marketing photograph for Krave Jerky, he wears a "Meat Power" shirt as he rips into a hunk of jerky. "It is healthy, full of protein and delicious," he says.

If Keflezighi's talk of a comeback seems crazy, recall that he finished fourth at last year's London Olympics, after winning the U.S. Olympic trials. On Sunday, he said that his injury, a muscle tear in his leg, forced him to forego the long run he usually executes three weeks ahead of a race, leaving him without the training mileage to maintain a front-of-the-pack pace beyond the first 13 miles.

On Sunday, only the encouragement of the crowd kept him from stopping altogether. "When people said, 'Go, Meb. Go, USA,' I got tears in my eyes and decided I had to finish," he said.

The top American men and women each grabbed 13th place overall. Adriana Nelson, 33, of Fort Collins, Colo., finished in 2:35.05. Ryan Vail, 27, of Portland, Ore. ran 2:13.23, after passing Keflezighi somewhere around the 20th mile. "Once I passed Meb, I had a pretty good idea I was the top American," Vail said.

Asked whether he represents the nation's marathon hope going forward, Vail mentioned other elite runners such as Dathan Ritzenhein and Ryan Hall. Then he added, "I don't think we've seen the last of Meb yet."

Tatyana McFadden, 24 of Clarksville, MD, won the women's wheelchair division in 1:59.13, securing an unprecedented marathon grand slam, having also won the Boston, London, and Chicago marathons this year. Marcel Hug, 27, of Switzerland won the men's wheelchair division in 1:40.14.

I saw the post-race interview, and Meb is a true champion. After he realized his own race was over, his respect for the other competitors, participants and spectators compelled him to go on and finish the race under disappointing circumstances. Class act. Thank you Meb for what you bring to the running community.

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